Understanding the lifestyle changes that authorities have requested or required in response to Covid-19 requires some biological knowledge. Therefore, articulations of intended biology learning at the school level will need to be evaluated, to see if they continue to be fit for purpose in light of the pandemic. This article proposes two principles of curriculum development and applies them to the (re)development of biology curricula in response to Covid-19. Firstly, while Covid-19 provides a vivid contextualisation of many biological concepts, it does not change the underlying concepts themselves. Moreover, it will not take long before it passes from being contemporary experience to a historical case study. Care is, therefore, needed to retain focus on the core concepts of biology, rather than allocating too much time to the particulars of the Covid-19 case. Secondly, biology curricula are often used to educate a population about public health. However, policymakers should be aware that knowledge alone is often insufficient to generate healthy behaviours.This article explores how socio-political crises that implicate teachers and students play out in dreams about the psychical and material realities of schooling. Teacher dreaming during crisis reveals the impossibility of the dream of education - a fantasy of control, protection, and transformation of students. The author analyzes her own teacher fantasies of protecting and transforming students during crisis as they are unfurled in her dreams to be just that, fantasies. The crises of violence and remoteness, as engendered by antisemitism, school fighting, and Covid-19, expose the fissures of this fantasy through the transferential time and ties of teaching. Ultimately, the conflicts that ensue from dreaming during crisis generate possibilities of learning through crisis.Rational approximations of functions with singularities can converge at a root-exponential rate if the poles are exponentially clustered. We begin by reviewing this effect in minimax, least-squares, and AAA approximations on intervals and complex domains, conformal mapping, and the numerical solution of Laplace, Helmholtz, and biharmonic equations by the "lightning" method. Extensive and wide-ranging numerical experiments are involved. We then present further experiments giving evidence that in all of these applications, it is advantageous to use exponential clustering whose density on a logarithmic scale is not uniform but tapers off linearly to zero near the singularity. We propose a theoretical model of the tapering effect based on the Hermite contour integral and potential theory, which suggests that tapering doubles the rate of convergence. Finally we show that related mathematics applies to the relationship between exponential (not tapered) and doubly exponential (tapered) quadrature formulas. Here it is the Gauss-Takahasi-Mori contour integral that comes into play.The continued circulation of influenza A virus subtype H5 may cause the emergence of new potential pandemic virus variants, which can be transmitted from person to person. The occurrence of such variants is mainly related to mutations in hemagglutinin (HA). Previously we discovered mutations in H5N1 influenza virus hemagglutinin, which contributes to virus immune evasion. The purpose of this work was to study the role of these mutations in changing other, non-antigenic properties of the virus and the possibility of their maintenance in the viral population. Mutations were introduced into the HA gene of a recombinant H5N1 influenza A virus (VNH5N1-PR8/CDC-RG) using site-specific mutagenesis. The "variant" viruses were investigated and compared with respect to replication kinetics in chicken embryos, thermostability, reproductive activity at different temperatures (33, 37 and 40°C), and virulence for mice. Amino acid substitutions I155T, K156Q, K156E+V138A, N186K led to a decrease in thermal stability, replication activity of the mutant viruses in chicken embryos, and virulence for mice, although these effects differed between the variants. The K156Q and N186K mutations reduced viral reproduction at elevated temperature (40°C). The analysis of the frequency of these mutations in natural isolates of H5N1 influenza viruses indicated that the K156E/Q and N186K mutations have little chance to gain a foothold during evolution, in contrast to the I155T mutation, which is the most responsible for antigenic drift. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/prt062607-p505-15-hcl.html The A138V and N186K mutations seem to be adaptive in mammalian viruses.In view of the recent global pandemic caused by COVID-19 intense efforts have been devoted worldwide towards the development of an effective treatment for this disease. Recently, PDE4 inhibitors have been suggested to attenuate the cytokine storm in COVID-19 especially tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). In our effort we have explored the 2-substituted pyrrolo[2,3-b]quinoxalines for this purpose because of their potential inhibitory properties of PDE-4 / TNF-α. Moreover, several of these compounds appeared to be promising in silico when assessed for their binding affinities via docking into the N-terminal RNA-binding domain (NTD) of N-protein of SARS-CoV-2. A rapid and one-pot synthesis of this class of molecules was achieved via the Cu-catalyzed coupling-cyclization-desulfinylation of 3-alkynyl-2-chloroquinoxalines with t-butyl sulfinamide as the ammonia surrogate under ultrasound irradiation. Most of these compounds showed good to significant inhibition of TNF-α in vitro establishing a SAR (Structure Activity Relationship) within the series. One compound e.g. 3i was identified as a promising hit for which the desirable ADME and acceptable toxicity profile was predicted in silico.India is an agrarian country with a long history of traditional food processing practices and Short food supply chains (SFSC). However, last few decades saw a huge investment and steady increase in large scale integrated food processing units to combat globalization, food security and India's export demands. Recent outbreak of COVID-19 has manifested the drawbacks in the existing production and supply chain system with a wide range of issues and enforces the need for a more balanced approach. This scenario can be commonly observed in many other agrarian developing nations. This article discusses various issues concerning the existing integrated food processing sectors such as high energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and food insecurity during disasters and pandemic outbreaks. Moreover, we emphasise a more sustainable approach with a better balance and understanding between SFSC and integrated food processing. A potential solution in this scenario would be, rejuvenating SFSC and traditional food processing approaches along with integrated food processing units.